Boulder officials want to fund pavement maintenance and other transportation improvements, but they were divided Tuesday night on the best way to do so.

At a study session, Boulder City Council members debated the pros and cons of a transportation maintenance fee to be collected on utility bills, a tax to be collected on utility bills, a sales tax or a head tax on people who work in Boulder.

A fee or tax for transportation is likely to appear before Boulder voters in November, as City Council members agreed that the needs are urgent. They hope to reach agreement on the form that tax or fee should take between now and August, when they have to agree on ballot language.

Transportation department officials originally asked the City Council to consider a transportation maintenance fee based on square footage and type of property use. The fee would be collected on water and sewer bills and would be charged to every property, including other government agencies such as the Boulder Valley School District, the University of Colorado and the city's many federal labs, which do not pay taxes.

The fee ranges are linked to studies of the number of vehicle miles generated by each type of property -- retail, office, industrial and residential.

Transportation department officials say Boulder is falling behind on its pavement maintenance and needs more money just to keep the streets in good condition for all users.

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"This is structural," Transportation Advisory Board member Jessica Yates said. "It's not going to go away on its own. It's going to require action on the part of the city to fix it."

In meetings with community groups and in polling, many Boulder residents and business owners said they would prefer a tax to a fee, and a higher tax actually polled better than a lower tax.

Many people also told transportation planners they wanted to see more improvements in transit and bike and pedestrian paths. The idea of a communitywide EcoPass program was popular, as well.

Transportation department officials suggested a tax that would be on utility bills and based on a similar assessment methodology to the fee.

Councilman George Karakehian said he would prefer a sales tax. It would avoid questions of rebates or credits for employers who pay for EcoPasses, and it would be paid by tourists and workers as well as residents.

Many council members said Tuesday that they wanted to provide those additional amenities, both because voters want them and because they are important to the city's long-term goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Let's do something meaningful and that's exciting to the voters," Councilwoman Suzanne Jones said. "Pavement maintenance is important, but there is nothing sexy about that."

Councilwoman Lisa Morzel said the city needs to consider significant changes to city streets, including reducing lanes, to support non-car traffic, and it ought to find a way to collect revenue from commuters.

"The only people who are going to be paying for this are the people who live here," she said. "We are not going to be addressing the 50,000, 60,000 people who commute into Boulder. I would favor a head tax."

Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum said the assessment based on square footage ends up being similar to a head tax, as offices will pay based on square footage, which is a proxy for how many employees they have.

He also noted the proposed fee charges a higher rate to retail -- because shoppers tend to drive -- when the city already collects much of its revenue from sales taxes on those shoppers.

"These approaches overlap more than you might think," he said. "If you were an employer in Boulder of office workers, boy, this looks just like a head tax to them. I don't think it feels any different or costs them differently."

Councilwoman K.C. Becker said the urgency of the need overrides concerns about creating the perfect funding mechanism or the perfect mix of transportation projects.

"Are we not going to do this?" she asked. "Because if we don't do this, we're facing deteriorating infrastructure or we're pulling from the general fund."

Transportation department officials will come back later this spring with a detailed chart of pros and cons of each option.

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